Xiaomi 12X review

Android 11 under MIUI 13

The Xiaomi 12X boots Android 11 with the most current MIUI 13 version. Most of the new MIUI features are under the hood, though they should make for a smoother, smarter, and more secure experience.

This version of MIUI 13 is based on Android 11, and it does not include Android 12 features like the revamped widgets or the Privacy Dashboard either with options like a protected clipboard, approximate location, updated Face Unlock algorithm. The updated File Manager and Clock app with Bedtime mode is nowhere to be found either.

Unfortunately, the new live wallpapers showing microscopic stuff like how vitamin C and citric acid crystallize, as demoed by Xiaomi for MIUI13, are not available on the Xiaomi 12X series just yet.

Still, Xiaomi claims that MIUI has been reworked completely, even if you cannot tell that by the interface and its design alone - it looks and feels just like MIUI 12. But the new version reportedly focuses on much better resource distribution and should handle processor, RAM and storage usage better and smarter.

For example, MIUI 13 is supposed to keep track of the current use of the processor and RAM and suspend any currently unnecessary tasks to free resources and offer more fluid performance. Xiaomi promises a background process efficiency increase of up to 40% compared to the previous version.

Liquid storage is what sounds really cool and relevant for modern smartphones. Xiaomi says that in most phones, the storage performance is halved in 36 months due to inefficient storage management. And this is where MIUI 13 comes - it offers 60% better defragmentation efficiency than MIUI 12 and different competitors. So, the storage performance drop in 36 months should be merely 5%. This sounds impressive, so here is hoping this feature lives up to the hype.

The final optimization done within MIUI's core is power management - the new version's optimization should lead to a 10% drop in the power consumption compared to MIUI 12's.

There is also an improved Smart Sidebar for even more fluid multi-tasking with pop-up apps. And the privacy has been improved with a number of features, some of which unique.

And now, let's take a closer look at MIUI 13 on the Xiaomi 12X.

The Xiaomi 12X supports an Always-on display - it can be always on, scheduled, or appearing for 5s after a tap. There are a lot of AOD themes you can choose from. A few of those can also be customized.

Always-on display

Breathing light is called Notification effect in MIUI 13. It can work with or without Always-on Display. Basically, that's a fancier version of the notification LED that uses the edges of the display - they flash with colors upon new notifications.

One more thing, you can choose the lockscreen clock style, too.

Notification light • Notification light • Notification light • Lockscreen clock style

You unlock the screen via the under-display optical fingerprint scanner. The reader is easy to set up, blazing-fast, and the accuracy is superb. A 2D Face Unlock is available, too, but it is far less secure than the fingerprint option.

Biometrics

The homescreens are business as usual - they are populated with shortcuts, folders, and widgets. The leftmost pane, if enabled, is Google's Discover.

MIUI 13

MIUI 13 offers an app drawer, and it automatically organizes your apps into categories. The first is All, meaning it contains all apps. Then follow Communication, Entertainment, Photography, Tools, New, and Business. You can edit these categories or even disable them altogether.

You can disable the app drawer entirely if that's not your thing.

App drawer

Just like in MIUI 12, MIUI 13 offers an independent Notification shade and Control Center. You summon them like on the iPhones - pull down from the left part of the screen for the Notification Center, pull down from the right for the Control Center.

If you are not fond of this iPhone-ish split - you can disable the Control Center, and the shade will revert to its normal looks and operation.

Notifications • Toggles • Settings • The old combined view

The task switcher is familiar, too, if you've ever used a Xiaomi. It shows all of your recent apps in two columns. Tap-and-hold on any card for the split-screen and pop-up shortcuts (where available), or just swipe it left or right to close it.

There is a Floating Windows button on top of everything. You can put a compatible app in a floating state, but you only have one floating window at a time.

Task switcher • Task Switcher • Task switcher • Split screen • Floating window • Floating window

Themes have always been a huge part of MIUI, and they are available on MIUI 13, too. You can download new ones from the Themes store, and they can change wallpapers, ringtones, system icons, and even the always-on display style.

Themes

MIUI comes with its proprietary multimedia apps - Gallery, Music, Mi Video (with streaming options). There is also an MIUI File Manager. And, of course, a Mi Remote app that uses the integrated IR blaster.

Gallery • Music • Video • File Manager • Mi Remote

MIUI also offers a Security app. It can scan your phone for malware, manage your blacklist, manage or restrict your data usage, configure battery behavior, and free up some RAM. It can also manage the permissions of your installed apps, define the battery behavior of selected apps, and apply restrictions only to certain apps.

Security

And speaking of memory, MIUI 13 offers Memory Extension option that's active by default (you can disable it if you like). It reserves up to 3GB of the internal storage to serve as RAM extension. Less important memory blocks should come here.

RAM Extension

The Smart Sidebar is quite familiar - a small visible mark on the edge of the screen that expands into a menu anytime you swipe on it. You launch apps in pop-up windows from here. Of course, you can customize the actions for this menu. If you are within a multimedia app (like YouTube, Mi Video, Gallery, etc.) you will get the Video toolbox next to the shortcuts - it contains a Dolby Atmos switch, plus shortcuts for Screenshot, Record screen, Cast, and Play Video with the screen off. And, oh yes, the last one works on YouTube, no Premium subscription needed!

Smart Sidebar • Smart Sidebar • Pop-up apps • Video toolbox

Other interesting MIUI 13 improvements you may not notice at first include a better screenshot editor, a brand-new battery page with performance mode, and an option for the camera app to shoot videos with the screen turned off.

When you take a screenshot, you will notice a modern-looking interface with brushes, erasers, text and selection tools, among others.

The Battery page offers four battery modes - two power-saving types, Balanced (default), and a Performance option that may give a small performance boost for a while but then lead to throttling. Here, you can also check the battery temperature.

Screenshot editor • Battery page and options

Some MIUI ROMs include ads in the default apps, it is a well-known thing. On our Xiaomi 12 review units, we saw no ads even if the "recommendations" were enabled across all system apps. Still, if you happen to see ads on yours, just go to each system app's Settings and disable recommendations.

MIUI 13 has a lot of under the hood improvements that promise a smoother and faster experience right now and for the next couple of years due to many optimizations. The interface is pretty much MIUI 12 with a couple of tweaks here and there. So, if you didn't expect a groundbreaking redesign, you will feel right at home with MIUI 13. We don't expect Android 12 to change that either.

Performance and benchmarks

The Xiaomi 12X employs the Snapdragon 870 5G chipset by Qualcomm, as opposed to the vanilla Xiaomi 12 with its Snapdragon 8 Gen1 SoC. And, as we explained earlier, we think this is the right fit for a phone of such caliber and a 1080p screen. The Snapdragon 870 chipset is of the current flagship generation with all modern connectivity options, powerful performance, and better thermals leading to less throttling. Plus, it is a more power-efficient platform.

So, the Snapdragon 870 offers an octa-core processor with one Kryo Prime (Cortex-A77) core clocked at 3.2GHz, three Kryo Gold (Cortex-A77) cores running at 2.42GHz and four Kryo Silver (Cortex-A55) cores ticking at 1.8GHz.

The chip offers Adreno 650 GPU - one of the best on the market and it will allow smooth HRR gaming under a 1080p display.

The Xiaomi 12X launches with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage, but Xiaomi is expected to launch two more variants soon - the base model with 8GB RAM + 128GB storage, as well as the limited version with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage.

Xiaomi 12X and its modern chipset enable 5G support, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.1, tri-band GPS, among other connectivity options.

And now, let's run some tests!

The Snapdragon 870 processor may not be the fastest on the market, but it remains among the most powerful Android CPUs and does a wonderful job.

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S22
  3682
• Xiaomi 12
  3652
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  3489
• Xiaomi 12X
  3168
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  2909
• Xiaomi 11T
  2834
• Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
  2832
• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  2801
• OnePlus Nord 2
  2792
• Poco X3 GT
  2310

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi 12
  1187
• Samsung Galaxy S22
  1171
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  1085
• Xiaomi 12X
  943
• OnePlus Nord 2
  814
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  803
• Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
  787
• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  771
• Xiaomi 11T
  742
• Poco X3 GT
  693

The Adreno 650 GPU is equally relevant in 2022 even if it is not the most powerful GPU on the market. It doesn't need to be - it provides enough oomph for smooth 1080p gaming.

The Xiaomi 12X has an unlocked refresh rate in games, and if one can go north of 60fps, it will.

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi 12
  75
• Samsung Galaxy S22
  62
• Xiaomi 12X
  47
• Xiaomi 11T
  40
• OnePlus Nord 2
  38
• Poco X3 GT
  38
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  35
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  33
• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  28
• Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
  28

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi 12
  117
• Samsung Galaxy S22
  96
• Xiaomi 11T
  72
• Xiaomi 12X
  70
• Poco X3 GT
  68
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  57
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  57
• OnePlus Nord 2
  57
• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  49
• Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
  49

GFX Manhattan ES 3.0 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi 12
  121
• Samsung Galaxy S22
  116
• Xiaomi 12X
  106
• Poco X3 GT
  97
• Xiaomi 11T
  96
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  88
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  78
• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  69
• Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
  68
• OnePlus Nord 2
  59

3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi 12
  9535
• Samsung Galaxy S22
  6749
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  5673
• Xiaomi 12X
  4320
• OnePlus Nord 2
  4224
• Xiaomi 11T
  4172
• Poco X3 GT
  3991
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  3136
• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  2491
• Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
  2477

Then, the AnTuTu tests confirm the Xiaomi 12X is a powerful little smartphone and everyone should be happy with its speed.

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S22
  745496
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  668722
• Poco F3
  631850
• Xiaomi 12X
  598003
• OnePlus Nord 2
  512164
• Poco X3 GT
  506800
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  465534
• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  429675

AnTuTu 9

Higher is better

• Xiaomi 12
  985115
• Samsung Galaxy S22
  881428
• Xiaomi 12X
  690298
• OnePlus Nord 2
  598022
• Xiaomi 11T
  590837
• Poco X3 GT
  578505
• Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE
  527663
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  522490
• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  506432

The Xiaomi 12X and its Snapdragon 870 5G chipset provide flagship-grade performance, and they can offer smooth high frame rate gaming. So, if performance was of any doubt on the 12X, you should be at ease now.

Finally, we ran a couple of stress tests, and you will be glad to hear that the Snapdragon 870 5G has an excellent CPU stability of 80%. The GPU throttling is a bit harsher with 72% stability, still a good one. Overall, the Snapdragon 870 chipset and its passive cooling solution do well within the Xiaomi 12X, and there is no observable throttling, no matter the task.

CPU stress test • GPU stress test

Even better, after a long stress test, the Xiaomi 12X is usually warm but nowhere near as hot as the Xiaomi 12X. The warmest spot on the 12X is at the left side of the frame, but, again, it is not as hot as the 12. And this excellent behavior is one of the reasons we'd recommend the Xiaomi 12X instead of the vanilla 12 if we had to pick one.